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2017

Colby College

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Articles 1 - 16 of 16

Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Big Data: Computational Biology Opens A New Window On The World's Challenges For Colby Scientists, Kate Carlisle Oct 2017

Big Data: Computational Biology Opens A New Window On The World's Challenges For Colby Scientists, Kate Carlisle

Colby Magazine

"What makes us 'us' and not a plant? Not a bacteria, or a virus," asks Andrea Tilden, the J. Warren Merrill Associate Professor of Biology and a genomics expert. "Any one genome has six thousand novels worth of information. Computational biology is the tool we use to read them."

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Collaboration: Professor And Former Protégé Are Finding Answers To Nature's Questions, Gerry Boyle Oct 2017

Collaboration: Professor And Former Protégé Are Finding Answers To Nature's Questions, Gerry Boyle

Colby Magazine

Biologist Dave Angelini and collaborator Will Simmons '17J have published findings of their three-year study of the effect of pesticides on bumblebees and hope the results will have the scientific community looking for new solutions to the problem.

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Science Phobic?: Professor Frank Fekete Can Fix That - And, Perhaps, Some Global Problems, Abukar Adan Oct 2017

Science Phobic?: Professor Frank Fekete Can Fix That - And, Perhaps, Some Global Problems, Abukar Adan

Colby Magazine

"It shouldn't be a surprise. Of any subdiscipline in biology, microbiology is the most relevant to my students' lives because everyone is concerned about his or her health." - Frank Fekete, professor of biology

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Snap, Crackle, Crunch: For This Team Of Food Visionaries, Insects Are The Key To Feeding The World, Susan Abram Oct 2017

Snap, Crackle, Crunch: For This Team Of Food Visionaries, Insects Are The Key To Feeding The World, Susan Abram

Colby Magazine

For most people, a cricket's chirp is the song of summer. But for a multidisciplinary team of Colby alumni, the uninhibited chorus that comes from the insects marks a leap towards the future of sustainable food systems.

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The Impact Weather Has On Nyc Citi Bike Share Company Activity, Mark Martinez Jul 2017

The Impact Weather Has On Nyc Citi Bike Share Company Activity, Mark Martinez

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

This paper seeks to figure out the effect weather has on individuals’ behavior. A more focused approach to determining this effect is seeing how different weather conditions ranging from the temperature, the precipitation, the amount of inches of snowfall and the wind speed effect the ridership of Citi Bikes throughout all four seasons. The approach of this research paper is using data from the National Climatic Data Center that focuses in on the weather found in Manhattan, New York and correlates each of the weather conditions to the total number of trips per day that is provided by the Citi …

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Electricity Demand Due To Policy Change In The U.K., Kevin W. Doherty Jul 2017

Electricity Demand Due To Policy Change In The U.K., Kevin W. Doherty

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

This paper examines United Kingdom Electricity Demand with regards to the Climate Change Act, which was enacted in November of 2008. Through actual demand data obtained from Nationalgrid, a U.K. based gas and electric utility company, this paper seeks to find out if the Climate Change Act has started to achieve its goal of reducing carbon emissions by looking at trends of electricity demand. Burning fossil fuels to produce electricity is a major contributor to global warming in the U.K. and policies enacted do not always live up to their ultimate goals. This paper tests how on track the Climate …

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The Demographic Drivers Of California’S Environmental Voting, Lukas Yasuda Jul 2017

The Demographic Drivers Of California’S Environmental Voting, Lukas Yasuda

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

This study examines the demographics of California’s 53 congressional districts and the relationship with the voting patterns on three environmentally focused propositions in the 2008 and 2010 elections. Previous literature on the topic is mixed as some studies suggest that select attributes are found among environmental voting centers, yet other research describes the relationship as more complex than simple characteristics. Previous literature on the topic is mixed, with some studies suggesting that select attributes are found among environmental vote support hubs, whereas alternative research suggests the problem is more complex than simple characteristics. I collected data on income, education, age, …

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How Individuals React To Smog Alerts In Beijing --Evidence From Beijing Subway Volume, Hanjing Shi Jul 2017

How Individuals React To Smog Alerts In Beijing --Evidence From Beijing Subway Volume, Hanjing Shi

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

This paper is going to find out the impact of smog alerts on individuals’ outdoor activities in Beijing. I use the subway volume to represent the outdoor activities. There are four levels of smog alerts in Beijing – blue, yellow, orange, and, red. The blue one is the lowest, and the red one is the highest. People in Beijing in all do not react to smog alerts in all statistically significant both on working days and weekends. But when combine orange alerts and red alerts together, the results show that people react to severe alerts differently during non-weekend days and …

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The Effects From Public Transportation On Property Values: A Closer Look At Scituate, Hanover, And Norwell, Massachusetts, Alexandra Taylor Perticone, Christine S. Coveney Jul 2017

The Effects From Public Transportation On Property Values: A Closer Look At Scituate, Hanover, And Norwell, Massachusetts, Alexandra Taylor Perticone, Christine S. Coveney

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

Prior studies have expressed the value of location in real estate, but more recent studies have explored the influence that public transportation has had on housing prices. Access to public transportation is understood to increase the value of homes. Easier access to public transportation allows for shorter and more convenient commutes into or within cities. However, other studies have found that proximity to public transportation can also have adverse effects on property values. This paper investigates whether the implementation of the Greenbush Commuter line in Massachusetts in October 2007 increased the housing prices in Scituate, Ma--the furthest town from the …

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Invited Introduction To Jerec, Matthew Kahn Jul 2017

Invited Introduction To Jerec, Matthew Kahn

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

No abstract provided.

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Welcome By The Editor, Nathan W. Chan Jul 2017

Welcome By The Editor, Nathan W. Chan

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

No abstract provided.

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Examining Interactions Between Opsins And Carotenoid Biosynthetic Proteins In Halophilic Archaea, Alexandru M. Plesa Jan 2017

Examining Interactions Between Opsins And Carotenoid Biosynthetic Proteins In Halophilic Archaea, Alexandru M. Plesa

Honors Theses

Organisms have evolved numerous specialized molecules for constantly responding to environmental changes. Examples of such molecules are the light-driven proton-pump rhodopsins, such as bacteriorhodopsin (BR) and cruxrhodopsin (cR), and the carotenoid pigments, such as retinal and bacterioruberin. In halophilic Archaea, retinal can covalently bind bacterioopsin (BO) and cruxopsin (CO) to form the corresponding protein complexes, and its biosynthesis is indirectly controlled by the activity of the lycopene elongase (Lye) enzyme, which converts lycopene, a retinal precursor, to a form of bacterioruberin. Interestingly, opsins were shown to inhibit the activity of Lye, thereby promoting retinal biosynthesis and indirectly regulating the apoprotein-cofactor …

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Crops And Controversy: Industry’S Role In The Gmo Debate, Carina Wallack Jan 2017

Crops And Controversy: Industry’S Role In The Gmo Debate, Carina Wallack

Honors Theses

The use of genetically modified crops (also called GM crops, genetically modified organisms, or GMOs for short) has become a highly contested issue. New genetic modification technologies offer a variety of advantages for improving agricultural efficiency. However, some scientists argue that the safety testing conducted thus far does not provide enough information and worry about possible health and ecological risks. Private industry sponsors a great deal of research on genetically modified crops. As the international controversy regarding the use of GMOs has unfolded, the very companies responsible for commercializing genetically modified crops have gained substantial influence in the resulting scientific …

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Vein Patterning During Juvenile Wing Development In Oncopeltus Fasciatus And Jadera Haematoloma, William R. Simmons Jan 2017

Vein Patterning During Juvenile Wing Development In Oncopeltus Fasciatus And Jadera Haematoloma, William R. Simmons

Honors Theses

Wings are a defining characteristic of all pterygote insects and are agreed to originate from a single common winged ancestor. However, essentially nothing is known about the molecular mechanisms that regulate wing development and patterning outside of Endopterygota, and the vast majority of this knowledge comes solely from Drosophila melanogaster. There is reason to suspect that the drastic developmental differences that exist between Endopterygota and Exopterygota have resulted in changes in the mechanisms, timings, or even genes that govern wing development. This study examined the roles of several genes known to be involved in D. melanogaster wing development and patterning …

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Protein Kinase Activity Toward Taabf1 In Imbibing Grains, Taylor P. Enrico Jan 2017

Protein Kinase Activity Toward Taabf1 In Imbibing Grains, Taylor P. Enrico

Honors Theses

The hormones gibberellin and abscisic acid are essential for plant responses to changing environmental conditions, and can send opposing signals. In wheat, the transcription factor TaABF1 plays an important role at the intersection of a gibberellin-induced/abscisic acid-suppressed pathway. When gibberellin dominates, the GA-induced gene, Amy32b, is transcribed. When abscisic acid is dominant, TaABF1 is active and it downregulates GA-induction of Amy32b, while promoting ABA-induced transcription of the gene HVA1. The activity of TaABF1 is thought to be regulated by post-translational phosphorylation at key serine residues. In this study, to determine TaABF1 phosphorylation by wheat kinases, we purified recombinant …

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Temporal Changes In The Larval Placopecten Magellanicus Population In A Small-Scale Fishery Closure Area In Coastal Maine, Usa, Jessica P. Batchelder Jan 2017

Temporal Changes In The Larval Placopecten Magellanicus Population In A Small-Scale Fishery Closure Area In Coastal Maine, Usa, Jessica P. Batchelder

Honors Theses

The Midcoast Maine Collaborative Scallop Project was established in 2013 by fishers, scientists, and policy makers to determine if a small-scale closure area could restore the local Atlantic sea scallop (Placopecten magellanicus) population to an area in coastal Maine that previously supported high scallop densities. These stakeholders established a three by one mile closure area in the Lower Muscle Ridge Channel to assess the response of the adult and larval scallop populations. Understanding the larval dynamics in a closure area is key to evaluating the recovery potential of the population and for future population stock levels. This study …

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